Charlotte City Council

At a debate in northwest Charlotte Thursday night, the city's three Democratic mayoral candidates faced an audition of sorts - for an endorsement by the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Filing isn’t even open yet for the Sept. 12 primary. But the group plans to make an unusual early endorsement in the coming days.

Charlotte's new city manager has released his proposed budget for the city. It calls for a 5.3 percent increase in city spending with no increase in property taxes. But residents would still pay more for water and garbage services.

The city's police and transportation department will not restrict parking outside a women's clinic in east Charlotte, City Manager Marcus Jones said at Monday night's city council meeting. The decision was made following a months-long push by abortion rights activists to ban street parking outside the clinic, to the objections of abortion rights opponents.

Charlotte has a goal of having trees cover 50 percent of the city by 2050. But a report out this month says the city may have trouble hitting that goal, as trees disappear faster than they can be planted.

At a standing room only council meeting Monday night, pro-life and pro-choice activists confronted Charlotte City Council, at times shouting down council members, booing speakers, and jabbing fingers at Mayor Jennifer Roberts and council member Julie Eiselt.

By noon, the crowds began to pour into uptown's Marshall Park. The local Spanish-language radio station, La Raza 106.1FM, supplied music as a line of volunteers hauled cases of water bottles into the park and procrastinators hastily scrawled last-minute messages onto sheets of poster board.

Hundreds of families arrived with school-age children in tow, ignoring CMS officials who urged parents against doing so earlier in the week. One 15-year-old high school student, Ciera Medina, said she should have been at J.M. Robinson High School, but skipped with her four younger siblings.

Federal officials say there's nothing new or different about how they've been arresting people for immigration violations in Charlotte this week. But the arrests raised fears in the city's Latin-American community. Many see it as part of a nationwide anti-immigrant campaign led by the White House.

Charlotte city leaders released a statement Friday that put it plainly: "Regarding sanctuary cities, although there is no agreed upon legal definition of what a sanctuary city is, Charlotte is not one." In recent interviews, however, Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts has been offering a more nuanced view.

On January 16, Charlotte City Council made a unanimous decision to appoint 30-year-old Dimple Ajmera to serve out the rest of John Autry’s term. Autry was elected to North Carolina’s House of Representatives last November. Six people including Ajmera applied for the job.